A German father who allegedly imposed an almost four-year Covid lockdown on his three children in a squalid “house of horrors” was a HR manager with a doctorate in philosophy, it has emerged.
Christian Steffen, 53, and his wife Melissa Ann, 48, are accused of imprisoning their eight-year-old twin boys and 10-year-old son in their rented villa in Oviedo, northern Spain, since October 2021.
Officers raided the property on Monday and found a cesspit of a home in which the children were allegedly forced to wear nappies and three medical masks on top of one another.
The guest bedroom had been turned into a dumping ground for the children’s soiled nappies, and the bathroom by the twins’ bedroom was occupied by a one-eyed cat with a huge tumour, the El Español newspaper reported.
The married couple were allegedly terrified of catching Covid, and investigators said they found five oxygen-purifying ozone generators that were plugged in for 24 hours a day.
It is claimed that Mr Steffen was the only person allowed to open the house’s front door, where he picked up food orders delivered by the local supermarket.
He was reportedly assisted in enforcing the restrictions by his wife, who Spanish press said weighed almost 22 stones and had 22 jars of Vaseline on her bedside table.
All the blinds in the house were closed apart from those in the children’s bedrooms, which had to be shut at 5.10pm every day.
Children ‘astonished at release’
When officers led the children out of the home, they were astonished that they were finally allowed outside. One of them is said to have knelt on the grass, touching it with amazement.
“They had three masks each on top of each other. They were oblivious to any contact with reality,” one investigator said.
“They were very scared around the mother, who told us all the time that the little ones had serious pathologies and that we should not approach them.”
Medical examinations conducted by a paediatrician found that all three children were suffering from “severe constipation” as they would avoid defecating in their nappies for hours.
A large number of used sanitary pads and tampons were said to have been found underneath the couple’s double bed.
Photos published in Spanish media show how the twins were allegedly kept in cribs meant for infants, on which they had drawn pictures of monsters.
Images also reveal the parents had converted a guest room on the first floor into a classroom with a table, three chairs, human anatomy books and a world map.
An online CV for Mr Steffen says he graduated in 2003 from the University of Hamburg with a doctorate in philosophy and a degree in “pedagogics” that supposedly allowed him to teach at secondary schools.
He was the author of a book released in 2005 called “Heidegger as a Transcendental Philosopher: His Fundamental Ontology in Comparison with Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason”.
A Linkedin profile says he freelanced as a HR manager from April 2015 and had previously worked as a recruiter for a number of companies in Germany .
The beginning of the end for the family’s self-imposed lockdown began on April 14, when police launched an investigation into the children’s welfare following a complaint from a neighbour.
Police became increasingly suspicious when they realised the food deliveries dropped at the family home were too large for a single person.
Neighbours thought house was empty
After his force rescued the children, Chief Supt Francisco Javier Lozano described the property as a “house of horror”.
“What could have led to this situation?” he told a press conference.
“Could the masks worn by parents and children be merely an incident? What motivated the arrival in Oviedo and this lifestyle?”
Before the shocking discovery, neighbours believed the house was totally abandoned.
Its landlord told the Spanish press: “This news is a scandal. In the four years I’ve rented the house to this German couple with three children, I never saw anyone, not a man, a woman, the children, a dog, or a cat.
“As far as I could see, there was no one there, and therefore no activity
Just a few metres from the house is the convent of the Discalced Carmelites, home to a community of cloistered nuns whose sole contact with the outside world is through selling doughnuts, cakes, and biscuits.
One of the nuns, Sister Teresa, said: “We thought it was empty because the garden wasn’t maintained, and there was no sign of life inside.
“A married couple with children had previously lived in that chalet, and later a couple with greyhounds, but since the latter left, we thought no one was living there any more.”
Marta del Arca, the regional welfare minister, said the General Directorate of Children and Families has assumed custody of the three children.
The couple are being investigated on suspicion of domestic violence, psychological mistreatment and child abandonment, and have been remanded into custody following their arrest.
